


If All We Have Is Time

by disaster_tiefling



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fix-It of Sorts, Friends to Lovers, Gen, M/M, Timeline What Timeline, accidental love confession, ambiguous timeline, basically this won't entirely adhere to canon, pretty much just ignore episodes 25 and 26, the best kind of confession
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-12 20:46:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15348372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disaster_tiefling/pseuds/disaster_tiefling
Summary: “You don’t have to say anything now, or tomorrow, or next week, next month, next year, if you don’t want to. I just had to tell you, and I don’t mind waiting for a response, whatever it might be. I just… I needed you to know.”In which there is a confession, a deal is struck, and two people work things out.





	1. Under the Moonlight

            It starts out just like any other day. If normal days had huge battles with half a dozen monsters, but such was life as part of the Mighty Nein: they drank too much, they fought battles just a bit too hard, and then they limped away to somewhat-quietly celebrate their victories.

            It was perfect.

            After they made camp, Caleb went to sit up next to a tree that was a good distance away from camp: not too far, just far enough that he could concentrate on his reading and copying down his spells. His friends could get a bit loud… and wasn’t that funny? His _friends_. Caleb hadn’t had friends in such a long time, save for Nott. But they were really his friends, weren’t they? Beau, and Fjord, and Jester, and Yasha, and… Molly. They hadn’t known each other for all that long, but Molly seemed to pay special attention to him. He knew when Caleb was having a difficult time with his memories, or when he felt uncomfortable (which was nearly every social encounter, but Molly seemed to be able to tell when he was _really_ uncomfortable), and would steer the attention away until he felt better.

            Perhaps it was because he was so lost in thought that he didn’t notice someone approaching him until they were standing right next to him.

            “Already sneaking off, I see. That eager to get away from us?” Molly grinned at the end, flashing his pointed teeth.

            “Ah, no, I was only-“

            “Relax, I’m just messing with you. No need to go into a tailspin.” Molly leaned against the tree and watched the camp, where it seemed that Jester and Beau had decided to play a little game of keep-away with Nott’s flask. Maybe it wasn’t the smartest idea, but from what Caleb could tell, they seemed to be having fun. “You think Nott will get mad at Beau for stealing her flask?”

            “No”, Caleb replied, almost surprising himself with how sincere it was. “No, she will not be angry. But I would not be surprised if some of Beau’s things go missing.”

            Molly laughed at that. “Why, Mister Caleb, you do have a sense of humor!”

            He shook his head, looking back down at his book. “I do not know what you are referring to.” When the silence that followed went a couple beats too long, Caleb looked back up to Molly, and was surprised to see that Molly’s usual smirk had changed into a much more serious, almost solemn expression. “Is something the matter, Mollymauk?”

            Molly looked back up, a facsimile of his usual smile making it back onto his face “Oh, it’s just something silly, nothing to worry your pretty head over.” Caleb was certain his cheeks were turning a bit pink, his suspicions only confirmed by the short laugh Molly gave before speaking again. “Actually, I did want to discuss something with you. Would you like to take a walk?”

            Caleb glanced over at the rest of their little group, then back down at the spell book he’d been meaning to add a couple of new spells into. Then he closed it and slid it back into its holster, put the rest of his various supplies and components back into their respective pockets, and stood up, brushing the dirt off his hands and coat.

            “I would love to, Mister Mollymauk.”

* * *

 

            They walked for a while through the dense woods surrounding their campsite, not straying too far. There was still enough light out that Caleb could see alright and not trip over too many things. He might need his Dancing Lights before too long, but that was fine, those didn’t take much energy. He’d been meaning to look into a more permanent solution to his and Beau’s vision problem, but they’d been busy as of late.

            They were walking in silence, just enjoying the time and company. They eventually came across a small stream, and though neither of them said anything aloud, they both stopped. Caleb waited for Molly to speak first.

            “So, uh, you and Nott seem to have a lot of little plots and schemes planned out, huh?”

            This was the “important thing” he wanted to talk about? “ _Ja_ , we have more than a few. They were very helpful when we found ourselves in a tight place on our own.”

            Molly gave a short, half-hearted laugh. “Must have been a lot of tight places.”

            “ _Was?_ ”

            “I mean, it seem like you’ve had a lot of practice at that one. What did Nott call it, Modern Literature? I mean, you really had all of us going there for a bit-”

            Ah, so that’s what this was about.

            “-You even had me believing it, and I performed for a living”, Molly continued. “It’s what I do, I’m good at it, but even I believed that Nott had killed you there. I wanted to kill her, I thought you were _dead_ , Caleb.”

            “I’m sorry, I didn’t think that you all would-“

            “What, that we wouldn’t believe it? That we wouldn’t- we wouldn’t _care_?” Molly’s voice was rising, his tail lashing a bit behind him. Caleb tried to say something, but realized Molly wouldn’t believe whatever he could say. Fortunately, he didn’t have to sit there for too long. “That’s what I thought. What do we have to do, Calbe, for you to realize that we do care? That it would hurt us if you- if you left like that?” He grabbed Caleb by both of his arms, forcing him to look Molly directly in the eye. “Caleb, you’re too important to us- to me. How do you think I’d feel if you just went and died like that? How would I feel if someone I love sacrificed themselves for me?”

            “ _W-was?_ ” Had he heard that right?

            Molly noticed Caleb’s eyes widen, and chuckled a bit. “Guess that slipped out, huh.” He stepped back, rubbing a hand over the back if his neck. “Well, I’m not going to lie and say it was a mistake, because it wasn’t. That’s kind of the whole reason I wanted to come out here and talk to you. I just… got caught up in what happened earlier first. I fell in love with you Caleb Widogast, and that battle earlier made me realize I wanted to tell you that.”

            “I- I don’t know what to say Mollymauk, I-“

            “That’s ok, I didn’t go into this expecting a response. I’ve kept that rattling around in my head for a while now, and I just need to do something about it.” He took a deep breath and slowly let it out, seeming to draw himself back together. “You don’t have to say anything now, or tomorrow, or next week, next month, next year, if you don’t want to. I just had to tell you, and I don’t mind waiting for a response, whatever it might be. I just… I needed you to know.”

            Caleb didn’t know what to say, mind still reeling a bit, so he just nodded instead.

            “That’s all I can ask.” Molly nodded, then his usual cocky smile appeared on his face. “Now, we’d better get heading back, before it gets too dark and everyone starts worrying about us. I don’t want Nott stealing my things too.”


	2. Lure of Liquid Confidence

True to his word, Molly never pressed the matter any further. He seemed truly content to wait for Caleb to decide his own feelings. In the meantime, things never became awkward between the two of them. Molly still interacted with Caleb just the same, talking and laughing and playfully flirting. Well, maybe the flirting was more genuine now, but that fact didn’t make him uncomfortable. It was… nice, actually.

Time, as it is sure to do, moved on. The Mighty Nein now had not one, but two jobs to complete for the Gentleman. (Caleb still wasn’t too sure about their ability to handle it, but it seemed to be going alright.) They traveled to Berleben to search for the safehouse located somewhere in the Labenda swamp, and they found a new little companion in Kiri, the Kenku girl. They all fell a little bit in love with her, Caleb thinks. She was a delight to travel with and they protected her with everything they had. Eventually they moved on to Hupperdook, which turned out to be quite a bit different from any of their expectations. The one thing that was accurate, however, was Beau’s stories of the wild parties that happened every night.

They entered a drinking contest. Of course they did, they were the invincible Mighty Nein, what else could Caleb have expected from them. Really, the only surprise about the whole ordeal was when he volunteered himself to go up against one of the reigning champions. Then he was surprised again when he actually _won_. They all cheered, surrounding and hugging him, and Caleb found that he didn’t actually mind so much. As they released him, attention quickly turning to who would compete in the next round, he caught Molly looking at him with a grin on his face that made something in him feel very warm. He smiled back, and then everyone was cheering again as Fjord sat down to face the next competitor.

* * *

 

Maybe an hour later, after they had won the competition and had moved on to other activities, Caleb moved over to their table on the side to sit down for a minute. Molly and Beau were already there, arguing about something ridiculous most likely. He stumbled over a bit and sat down heavily on the bench next to Molly.

“Ah, and here’s the wizard in question!” Molly exclaimed, throwing an arm around Caleb’s shoulders and grinning at him. “Beau and I were just discussing which of us would win in a fight. Of course, I think it would be me, and she thinks it would be her, but I would love for you to tell her that I’m right.” Beau scoffed indignantly and took a half-hearted swipe at him, which he batted away. “Come on now, I’m just telling the truth!”

“No, you just think you can get him to agree ‘cause he thinks you’re pretty!” Beau yelled back.

Now, Caleb usually would have gone completely red and sputtered out a protest, but he’d had a lot of alcohol in a very short amount of time, and was feeling a bit braver than he usually did. So when Molly tried to redirect the conversation, he interrupted. “Well, that is a good strategy and it probably would have worked. He is very pretty.”

Caleb didn’t listen to Beau’s cheering about being right, because he was busy looking at Molly. He’d stopped talking after Caleb spoke and was now staring at him with a surprised look on his face. Good. It wouldn’t be fair if Molly was the only one who could flirt and throw Caleb off balance.

Just then Jester and Nott ran up, yelling something about how they were planning more dance moves, and how they needed Beau to join them. They grabbed her and whisked her away as quickly as they’d arrived, leaving Caleb and Mollymauk alone at the table.

“Well, well, Mister Caleb, I had no idea you thought I was pretty”, Molly teased.

Caleb shrugged “It is true though, I would not lie about it.”

“Ah, I don’t doubt that. I don’t think it’s in you to lie about things like that, you couldn’t keep a straight face.”

“Well, I only say things like that to people I like, so you wouldn’t know if I could lie about that.”

“So that’s what this is about then. You _like_ me, do you?”

Again, Caleb shrugged and the corner of his mouth turned up a bit “I never said that.”

“Maybe not in so many words. I’ll get it out of you one day though.”

Suddenly there was a loud crash, and they could hear Jester cackling. Molly sighed and stood up. “I’d better go see what that was about, in case they damaged something. I’ll talk to you later?”

“I’m not certain I could avoid that if I wanted to.” Caleb responded, to which Molly laughed.

“Too true, too true. I’ll see you later then.” And he disappeared into the crowd.

* * *

 

 Jester had convinced him to dance with her. He’d finally broken down and accepted, and now it turned out to be the biggest mistake he’d made. He was drunk, his thoughts wandered to the last time he’d really been dancing, with _Astrid_ and…

And now Jester probably thought he was crazy. Everyone else had probably seen it too, how he’d stormed upstairs to be alone. No one had come up to check on him yet, not even Nott if that was anything to go by.

A knock at the door broke his train of thought. “Who is it?” he asked warily.

“The pretty one, here with a peace offering.” So Molly had decided to come see what had happened. He shuffled over to the door and opened it. Molly was holding a steaming mug of cider, and gave him a smile when he saw Caleb looking at him a bit apprehensively. “I thought you could use a warm drink. Might help you to not have a headache tomorrow.”

“ _Danke._ ” Caleb walked back over to his bed and sat down. Molly took a seat beside him and handed over the mug. Caleb took a few sips of the warm drink, appreciating the warmth of it before setting it down, waiting for the inevitable.

“I’m not going to pry and ask what made you snap at Jester. I’m sure it’s something personal and I don’t want to force you to talk about it if you’re not ready.” Molly sighed and clasped his hands in his lap. “But if you are ever ready to talk about it, I’m always willing to listen. I won’t judge either, and I just wanted to let you know that I care.”

Caleb hadn’t exactly been expecting such a heartfelt conversation, and simply nodded back. “ _Danke_ , Mollymauk. That is good to know.”

“Anytime, Caleb. That’s what friends are for, right?” Molly reached out a hand and patted Caleb’s knee. “Now get some rest, we can’t have our best wizard not at his best tomorrow. He’s rather important to us.” Then Molly stood up and quietly left the room. As he left, Caleb couldn’t help but notice that the warm feeling had returned to his chest


End file.
